If You Think the Beginning Was Something...

The homily at our Christmas Midnight Mass was delivered by a deacon, Peter Marshall (pardon any misspelling here) who will be ordained to the priesthood this spring. I don't know if it was Deacon Peter's first homily, but it was the first time I had ever heard him preach, and it was an awesome experience. His subject was "If you think the beginning was something...", and it really set me to thinking...

Deacon Peter used the examples we are familiar with from our own lives to illustrate that those exciting first moments pale in comparison to that which lies in store for us at the end of significant stages in our lives. That the first day of college pales in comparison to the promise of graduation; that the wedding belies the trials and tribulations that await the couple over the course of their marriage; that the arrival of a newborn shrinks as the responsibility and the promise of what is to come from that new life dawns on the parents.

So then does the Nativity of Christ, despite its touching tenderness, despite being pregnant with promise, despite the message of love it sends mean very little if we detach from it the glory of the Passion and the Resurrection of Christ. Now please, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that the Nativity is not important. Certainly it is quite necessary to the plot of salvation history. If Jesus had not become Man, then his death and resurrection could not have occurred. And there are many other important lessons to be gleaned from this season.

I don't know why my mind does this, I suspect it's a touch of Attention Deficit Disorder, but suddenly the thought of Al Jolson popped into my head while I was turning Deacon Peter's words over in my head. In 1927, in the classic and history making movie The Jazz Singer, Al Jolson spoke the first words heard in a major motion picture, "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! You ain't hard nothing yet!" Audiences went wild. Look where cinema has gone today from that humble start.

I can easily imagine the Bambino, God become Man, or perhaps the young Jesus with the rabbis and scribes in the Temple as His parents found Him with these words upon His lips, "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! You ain't heard nothing yet!", then adding "If you think the beginning is something..."

Until next time, all the best. Joe